ORIGIN LIVE ENCOUNTER MK4

ORIGIN LIVE ENCOUNTER  Mk4 Tone arm

PLEASE NOTE: We import OL Tonearms in to order, made to order means you get the latest version with latest updates and any options you might want in the one ready to go package. Our experience is OL often updates their designs and everyone wants the latest version, it only takes around 2 weeks to get you the latest and greatest!

The Encounter arm builds upon the outstanding performance of the Silver & Zephyr by improving the design and quality of all components. This is not just a development - it is a complete redesign.

The entire yoke and base are different from the Silver/Zephyr tonearm. These structures, contain the horizontal and vertical bearings and are therefore highly influential on sound quality. The upgrade in design manifests itself in outstanding deep bass along with increased focus, stability and resolution through all frequencies. The tight and powerful bass carries the hallmark of authority and adds so much to the musical experience. In addition the arm dramatically improves the great transparency, tonal balance and sound-staging of the Silver arm. It produces a wonderful live feel to the music, with fabulous transient speed and air.

The Encounter arm introduces dual-pivot bearings to the Origin Live tonearm range. Dual Pivot bearings decouple the arm from its environment in a far more competent way than conventional bearings. The result is similar to Uni-pivot arms in terms of a natural fluid-like quality to the sound. However, this comes without the drawbacks of Uni-pivot arms – namely the fiddly setup, wobbly cueing and decrease in bass performance.

Dual Pivot bearings have the advantage of very low friction which helps give the encounter greater transparency and musicality than the Zephyr arm, allowing you to hear previously unnoticed details in your music. It’s also fast and enables musical rhythms to keep in time with one another. As with all our arms, tonal balance is neutral allowing it to work well in all types of systems.

The newest Mk4 armtube is a high-grade aircraft alloy reducing the effect of resonance. This has the enormous benefit of allowing your cartridge to function correctly without unwanted movements caused by resonance. Surprising to many, the armtube is the most critical aspect in tonearm design. It affects performance more than any other single component of the arm. Many of us make the mistake of thinking bearings must be the most important aspect of an arm and while critical to keep the armtube stable and tracking, the effect of detrimental armtube resonance's, as amplified 8,000 times from the cartridge signal to the final speaker output, destroys sound quality in a way that can have devastating effects.

The most powerful optical microscope can only magnify 1000 times. When one looks at an arm tube as it plays a record, all seems calm and serene, however at a microscopic level resonant waves in tonearm are like watching the Atlantic sea in a hurricane.

The cartridge is held by this constantly heaving / rippling surface and its accuracy in reading the grooves of the record is directly proportional to the level of micro vibration in the arm. Origin Live maintains that for this reason alone the money performance ratio of using a superior tonearm can have very substantial paybacks.